Saturday, October 27, 2012

The talented Norma from TheFairyYellowBugQueen is hosting a Ghost Challenge this week. To participate, you just need to post on October 27 or 28th with the topic of Ghost!! Seemed easy enough until I started to think about ghosts and what they mean to most of us. Where do they come from and how is it that most of us still get chills up our spine when we think about them or hear stories on Halloween about their presence. The history of ghosts within all cultures, religions and across the globe can be read about in wikipedia here. Take a look,
be brave, and hope you follow me into one of my favorite hauntsin New York City,Central Park.

From the front, you are bestowed with the towering entrance gate to the Conservatory Gardens at 105th Street.

Rumor has it that the ever popular socialite, Sonia Greensmith, a wealthy debutante from London, (and one of the original families to settle on the Upper East Side of Manhattan ) died a tragic death there at the age of 28 from a fire that started in the operating room. Ever since, historians say if you listen carefully, you can hear her wailing at all times of the day and night although her name has never been mentioned in reference to these ghostly sounds.

Ms. Greensmith can be seen below from an old photo taken in her London estate.

Now, as we slowly take a walk further into the park, we start to hear the sounds of the birds chirping and the garden brush moving from side to side as if people in a movie theatre are saying Shhhhhh from every direction.

Looking upward- you can see birds taking off and landing, weaving themselves throughout the intermingled tree branches. You can't help but hear the movement of the air- with burnt amber colored leaves dropping against the autumn palette of the ground below. You can smell their crispness with that ever so subtle decaying aroma that makes you want to inhale as deeply as you can.

Yes, Autumn is truly in its bash of color with flowers blooming in a celebratory renaissance everywhere you looked.

Lush and lavish, as if having a last frolic of the season!

And then silence.

A eerie quiet blanketed the gardens- the birds are still, the branches stop moving, the brush was no longer swaying...
It was like a moment frozen in time.

There was a brutal wave of cold air that descended from out of nowhere, as if painted across the landscape with one huge brush stroke.

A bright light seemed to magically unfold- translucent in nature- exactly as the stories of long ago described.... and then, there before my eyes appearedTheGhost of CEnTraLPaRK..

I was in a scared state of awe. Yet as frightened as I was, I crept closer and closer to get a better look. I gained about 10 yards, until I felt something stopping my legs from moving. A barrier of some kind was in front of me, my mouth turned parched, painfully dry within a second, and my hands became frozen despite the fact that we were in the midst of the warm autumn's early evening air. A strange dizzying feeling crept over me - I was now in an utter state of panic.

Then suddenly,
The sky darkened...

Fear targeted my body as if it were injected directly into my veins, my heart started thumping, pounding wildly. I turned around and started running as far and as fast as I could. Exhausted, I started gasping for air, as if in some sort of a daze. I looked up and realized that I had actually slipped and fell. Laying on the cold wet ground apparently for quite some time and unbeknownst to me,

I had a Halloween nightmare -in January, on the coldest snowiest day of the year!

Now I hope you enjoyed this short "tall tale" - with it being as much atreat for you to read as it was for me to create and write!***

***All characters, people and places are fictitious with the exception of the Conservatory in Central Park and Terence Cardinal Cooke Nursing home.

13 comments:

Awesome, awesome story Jill. I'm sitting here shivering actually. I was taken to a marvelous place of inbetween reality and suspended breath-shortening wonder. I loved how you manipulated my emotions. I was sad for that poor girl. Amazed about how that could have happened. Now I'm chuckling in a kind of black humour vein, thinking of the setting of the operating room fire. You are very funny. You have a talent. I'd read anything you wrote honestly. Thank you so very much for creating this creatively brilliant entertainment for us all. You rock. Hugs, Norma, xop.s. spooky kisses to you

A scary and awesome story Jill. Kept me on my toes from I heard of the poor Sonia and her ghostly sounds …were perhaps the shhh…..sounds from everywhere in the park... But then came peace, flowers blooming and silence – thought it was all over … but then the ghost - your horrible Gespenst…I understand that you froze in panic and then ran!! Happy Halloween to you and thanks Meistro for yet another great story!

It must have been ages since I heard or read a ghost story (we don't celebrate Halloween in the Netherlands) I enjoyed your story very, very much! You know I'm a reader and LOVE words so much more then a (ghost)movie! Thank you dear!

What a brilliant writing! You had me :) I kept picturing being in a tent in the dark with a flashlight under my chin reading this to my grand child some day :) Loved it.

Your photos are comforting and wonderful especially after a frightening week with Sandy. I spent a frightening evening with my son, DIL, and grand daughter but we made it through ok. We never lost power.

My heart goes out to those devastatingly effected by this massive storm.